


Without You

by strange_nut_pirate



Series: OTP Prompt Oneshots [15]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: A little bit of clingy Annabeth for the soul :), Canon Compliant, Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/M, Insecurities, Minor Injury- Not described in detail, Takes place after HoO
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:28:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26335669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strange_nut_pirate/pseuds/strange_nut_pirate
Summary: When Percy returns, injured and bleeding, from a mini quest that Annabeth had no idea about, she’s not happy with him.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Series: OTP Prompt Oneshots [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1657651
Kudos: 58





	Without You

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Thanks for clicking on this fic to read! Anyways, my inspiration with this one was just basically realising how many times Percy has nearly died (as a chosen one does), and thinking, “Huh, I wonder if Annabeth is used to this by now.” So have this quick little thing that I wrote a while back (I’m always posting old oneshot prompts smh it’s all I do now 🤦♀️).
> 
> Anyways, hope you like it 🤍💚🤍💚
> 
> Prompts by— https://drink-it-write-it.tumblr.com/post/189074732022/200-prompts

**“Don’t tell me you’re fine, I can see the blood!”**

Percy cringed sheepishly, and averted Annabeth’s hard gaze. He clutched the wound in his side with one hand, and leaned on Will Solace with the other. 

“Talk about a quest gone wrong,” Percy said, trying to break the tension.

Annabeth didn’t laugh, and Will didn’t seem to find it amusing either.

“Come on, Percy, to the infirmary,” he ordered, his bossy tone ensuring no room for argument.

As they stumbled and shuffled towards the Big House, Annabeth walking behind them, she couldn’t help but feel more and more hurt. Hurt that Percy would go charging off into danger without telling her. They had always had each other’s back, always had been by each other’s side, but maybe she was starting to realise that maybe Percy didn’t rely on her as much as she relied on him. She knew she was being irrational, but Percy made her that way. One second, she wanted to kiss him forever, and never stop, and the next she wanted to kill him. Or both. She was constantly rendered completely unreasonable. Stupid Seaweed Brain.

As Will sat Percy down on a bed in the infirmary, Annabeth was just about quivering in her unsolicited rage.

She felt she could allow herself to be decently upset, considering how her best friend didn’t tell her that he was going on a mini quest to retrieve more celestial bronze from a Greek base near Rhode Island, where the Cyclopes were transporting more weapons. Annabeth wouldn’t normally be surprised if Percy was chosen to go on the quest, as he was arguably the camps strongest candidate, and the quest was basically necessary, given that celestial bronze weapons were so rare, and the camp was having a bit of a shortage recently. And she knew the members of the quest would have to be deported immediately, to collect the weapons and armour before anyone else could get to it, so a meeting with all the head counsellors wasn’t needed, as Chiron and Rachel just chose the candidates immediately. Annabeth hadn’t been around then, as she was helping Kayla Knowles and the rest of the Apollo cabin set up for the campfire that night.

However, Annabeth had only heard of Percy’s new quest hours after he had left, no word to her whatsoever. Even Clarisse had told her she was leaving (to be fair, Clarisse had bragged to anyone who would listen), and the third member of the quest, Katie Gardner, wished her off as well, but did not mention Percy.

 _She probably thought he had had enough common sense to let me know,_ she thought glumly.

And then the three of them stumbled back to camp, bruised (Katie), disoriented (Clarisse) and bleeding (definitely Percy). And Annabeth had been losing her mind for the past three days, trying to Iris message him, reach out to Sally, anything. Percy stressed her out like no one else could.

Now, he sat in his cot, beside a passed out Clarisse and a grumpy Katie who paid no attention to Annabeth and Percy. Will immediately got to work on Percy’s wounds, giving him nectar and ambrosia, murmuring hymns and constantly asking if Percy was comfortable or hurting, to which Percy always assured that he was comfortable, and that he wasn’t in pain.

Annabeth had been silent the whole time, and so was Percy, unless he was being spoken to.

“Get some rest now,” Will said after he had finished up on Percy. As he looked between Annabeth and Percy, feeling their obvious tension, he sighed and his gaze turned stern. “I mean it. The more you rest, the quicker you heal, and then you can have your lover’s quarrel.”

“Thank you, Will,” Annabeth quipped impatiently. Honestly, she was grateful to him, he had saved them both now, but she really had the urge to chew Percy out a bit before that. 

Will must’ve sensed her ulterior motives because he just shrugged and looked the most exasperated Annabeth had ever seen him (and that was really saying something).

As he left them, Percy turned to Annabeth, his face holding the feeling of absolute guilt. Annabeth nearly felt pitiful.

“You didn’t tell me,” she stated blankly.

“I didn’t want to worry you. It was only a mini quest, and I’ve dealt with much worse.”

“Yeah, so not telling me about your quest across the US would definitely not worry me at all,” Annabeth snapped, and Percy winced. “Do you know how embarrassing it was to find out from the Stoll brothers where you were? The _Stoll_ brothers! I just— I’m hurt, Percy. And I feel betrayed. We’re supposed to be best friends—”

“We are!” He interrupted. “Annabeth, you are my best friend! I trust you the most.”

“Then I don’t understand!” Annabeth exclaimed, hating her vision for going blurry and her throat for closing up and her eyes for burning. Ugh, she was pathetic. “I thought you listened when I told you how lost and stressed I was when Hera took you from me. When you were gone, and I didn’t know if you were alive, or—” she couldn’t even finish her sentence, her mind going back to the horrible feeling of her denial that Percy could no longer be alive. 

The thought of him, dead at sixteen, her looking for his body, it brought on a whole wave of that familiar, insurmountable pain. She couldn’t breathe. She was certain she would die along with him, because she was certain all her internal organs would just stop, whether she wanted them to or not. She was sure she would’ve passed out back when everyone thought Percy had died at sea when she was thirteen. She had been in denial too, begging for him to come back any minute so she could berate him for being so careless. Even as she had been shaking and crying at his ‘funeral.’

A fat tear finally slipped from Annabeth’s stubborn eyelids, and after that, a whole lot more came falling down her blotchy cheeks. She wasn’t pretty when she cried, but she wasn’t trying to be pretty now.

She looked to the ground, but she heard Percy’s bed creak as he got up, and soon she found the familiar, tight hold of him, holding her close to him.

“You don’t understand the feeling, to be looking for someone all the time, even when they’re with you, to have this nagging feeling at the back of your mind telling you they can disappear any moment. Again and again you’ll disappear and leave me barely holding it together, and then you’ll come back right before I break, but it’s still so painful, it never gets easier. Everywhere, people or monsters or gods or anything will try to take you away, and I want to be there to protect you, and fight beside you. I want to be with you all the time so I can help you and keep you safe. I know that’s unreasonable because I know you can’t always be with me, but if you’re ever doing anything dangerous and I can’t be there for whatever reason, tell me first, okay?”

He kissed her hair.

“I’m sorry, I will from now on, that was so dumb of me,” he said sincerely, and that’s all Annabeth needed to hear before she relaxed against him. “I know you’re always worrying about me, so, I just— didn’t want to stress you out more, I guess. And in my brain, my stupid brain, I just thought, if you could see how I can handle minor things on my own, you’d stress less when other things happen to me. It was dumb, and I’m really sorry.”

Annabeth couldn’t help but give a watery chuckle.

“You came back bleeding, Percy,” she pointed out.

“Yeeeah,” he said, loosening his hold on her so she could look up at him with tear-ridden eyes. “Turns out I’m pretty useless without you.”

Annabeth smiled and kissed his jaw. 

“Of course you are, Seaweed Brain. I can’t believe you’re only finding out now.”

Percy let out a bright laugh that Annabeth could listen to all day. Again, one moment she wanted to murder Percy herself and the next she wanted to kiss him senseless and hold him close to her forever. Her mother would be so disappointed in her. But she didn’t care at the moment, because Percy was here with her, and he was safe.

“Oi, punks!” Clarisse snarled at them from her crib, seemingly conscious now. “If you don’t shut up soon I’ll pummel you two!” 

She then made a threatening fist at them, and then turned on her side and passed out again. Katie shrugged at them.

“I think you two are cute,” she said, making Annabeth blush in embarrassment, not knowing how to feel about accidentally spilling her heart out to Katie and Clarisse as well.

“C’mon,” Percy said, grabbing her hand and guiding her out of the infirmary. “Let's get out of here.”

Annabeth grinned, but then hesitated.

“Okay,” she said, “but you still need rest, remember? We’re going to your cabin so you can get exactly that.”

“Okay, okay,” Percy relented, still holding her hand. “You’re the boss, Wise Girl.”


End file.
